The ERS has long campaigned for devolution to the local level, but the Society also campaigns for proportional representation at a local level. Here ERS Deputy Chief Executive Darren Hughes outlines why they should go hand in hand. Sign our petition for a fairer local voting system The decision by the government to […]

In the first article of the ‘Merger, He Wrote’ series, Steve Brooks director of the Electoral Reform Society Cymru reflects on the Welsh Government’s new white paper on local democracy. For the last two decades, the story of Welsh devolution has been about the transfer of power from Westminster to Cardiff Bay. Little real […]

Tens of thousands of people across England are being denied a vote in next week’s local elections, owing to the undemocratic phenomenon of uncontested seats. In this year’s elections there are seven wards which are ‘uncontested’, ie which are only being contested by one political party. These uncontested wards are: Otmoor, Cherwell District Council […]

At the end of last year we published a report, Northern Blues, which made the case for a fairer voting system at the local level from the Conservative perspective. It had a real impact, convincing a range of previously sceptical Conservative commentators of the case for local electoral reform. Today we are publishing its […]

Today we are launching Northern Blues: the Conservative case for electoral reform. This is the first of two reports looking at the case for proportional representation (PR) in local elections from the point of view of the two biggest parties. Our aim with these reports is to show how PR could play out for Labour […]

With this year’s county council elections only a few weeks away, we’ve undertaken new analysis that has revealed the parlous state of local democracy in England and Wales. Evidence shows 21 million people are now living in the local government equivalent of ‘One Party States’ – with single parties holding undeserved supermajorities, and […]

On Thursday 6 May, 27 county councils and 8 unitary authorities in England and Anglesey in Wales will hold elections. Sadly, they give us yet another example of the woeful state of local government. The Electoral Reform Society is determined to lead the debate on how we build a better local democracy in Britain. […]

Andrew Burns, Labour Leader of Edinburgh City Council On Thursday the 3rd May 2012, I was elected for the fourth time to represent a Ward within the City of Edinburgh Council area. It was a real privilege to be given local residents’ trust once again, and I’ll do all I can to repay that […]

In 2007 Scotland began using the Single Transferable Vote (STV) for local government elections. The First Past the Post system – once used for all public elections in mainland Britain – was consigned to history. May 2012 marked the second outing for the system, and the first since elections to the Scottish Parliament were […]

Eurovision is upon us once again with everyone’s favourite celebration of Europe’s questionable musical talent. Certain traditions will no doubt hold: certain acts will be flamboyantly silly, Britain will score badly and after it is all over people will moan about the voting. The voting at the moment is done by a system of […]